Currently there are a number of different cryptographic email services available to enable a sender to transmit encrypted message content to a recipient and to provide the recipient with an ability to decrypt the content. Many of these mechanisms have specific advantages and drawbacks to using them. For example, although one such mechanism known as Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME) may enable a recipient to receive encrypted content and a corresponding key to decrypt the content, the applicability of S/MIME is limited in terms of potential recipients because this standard requires each of the sender and the recipient to obtain credentials from their respective in-house certificate authority (CA) or a public CA before this functionality can be utilized. Due to this limitation, when sending encrypted content outside of an organization, the sender may lack confidence that the recipient will be able to successfully decrypt the content upon receipt because the sender may be unsure of whether the recipient has obtained credentials or will do so if prompted. This concern could be partially mitigated by limiting potential recipients to individuals from within one's own organization (e.g. co-workers with email addresses operating on the same domain) or at least recipients whom are known to have already obtained credentials from a public CA. The clear drawbacks to S/MIME, and other similar cryptographic email services, include limiting the pool of potential recipients to one's own organization and/or requiring recipients to go through the cumbersome process of obtaining credentials from a CA prior to sending encrypted content.
It is with respect to these considerations and others that the disclosure made herein is presented.